Neuropathy Treatment Webmd

Here’s something obviouschange happens. It’s inevitable and not always very surprising. For instance, kids grow up and need bigger clothes. That’s normal. Your body will change over time in other ways, too, and those changes aren’t necessarily a sign of anything unexpected and certainly aren’t always a result of anything you did in particular. We may not always know what changes will come, but we can be sure they’ll happen. These days, people living with type 2 diabetes and their health care providers have many different options for treating diabetesmedicines that work in the body in different ways.

And at different times, different medicines may be used, as your body changes. That’s incredibly common for people with type 2 diabetes. It can seem complicated at first, but here’s what’s cool. While you have to be a health care provider to prescribe these medicines, you don’t have to be a health care provider to understand how they work. Once we break it all down. Hi. Welcome to The Diabetes Download, brought to you by Cornerstones4Care. I’m Michael Stevens, back to break down diabetes. The food you eat and your level of physical activity play an important role in controlling blood sugar. So does the medicine you take. Nowadays, we have many medicines and delivery options to help manage diabetes. In this tutorial, I’m going to be talking about diabetes pills delivery devices injectable, noninsulin medication and insulin.

Keep in mind, these require a prescription from your health care provider, and he or she will work with you to decide which one is right for you. First, let’s talk about diabetes pills. So, as you can see, there are several types of diabetes pills, and they do different things in the body. Let’s talk about some of the most common ones now. One type of pill prevents the kidney from reabsorbing sugar. Other pills do their job by slowing down or stopping the liver’s release of extra, or stored sugar.

Ep. 5 Diabetes Treatment Options

There are some that help the pancreas release more insulin and others that lower insulin resistance to help increase the amount of sugar your body tissue takes in. Your health care provider may prescribe something called a combination pill. Just like it sounds, this is 2 medicines in 1 pill. There are several combination pills available to people with type 2 diabetes. These can be more effective than a single medicine, and more convenient than taking 3 or 4 pills. These are some long medical names, but they’re important to know. To help you remember them, click pause on this tutorial and write them down.

If your health care provider feels a diabetes pill is right for you, you’ll want to talk with him or her about the advantages and disadvantages of each. Aside from pills, there are other medicines that are used for treating diabetes. Instead of being taken by mouth, these medicines are injected into the body. Insulin, for instance, is currently not available in a pill. Insulin must be injected into the fat under your skin in order for it to get into your blood. We’ll talk about insulin a little later in this tutorial.

So what are your different options for injecting medicine This is a vial and syringe. The vial is the small bottle that medicine comes in. The syringe is a long, thin tube with a needle, which you use to draw the medicine from the vial, and inject. Here, we have a prefilled pen. A variety of insulin and noninsulin medicines now come in pens. Prefilled pens have dials you use to select your dose, and buttons you push to inject. Many pens are designed to be carried with you. And these pens have needles you buy separately and attach yourself.

People sometimes get worried when they hear the word ‘injection’ because of the needle. And that’s understandable. When they think of needles, they’re picturing the larger needle their health care provider may have used in the doctor’s officeto take their blood, for instance. But needles used for injecting diabetes medicines come in different thicknesses. The thickness is called the gauge’. The higher the gauge, the thinner the needle. This first needle, which your health care provider may have used at one point, is an example of a 23gauge needlethe thickest one of the three I have here.

The middle one is an example of a needle that’s used with a syringe for injecting diabetes medicine. It’s thinnera 27gauge needle. And it’s made as thin as 31gauge. And this needleused on today’s prefilled pens is thinner still32gauge. This needle is an example of one that’s used on today’s prefilled pens. It’s about as thin as 2 of these. Now whether you use a prefilled pen or a vial and syringe to inject, the goal is to take your medicine regularly, as discussed with your health care provider, to help keep your blood sugar under control.

This is called an insulin pump. Many insulin pumps are computerized and can be programmed by the person using it to deliver a steady, measured amount of insulin throughout the day. Push a few buttons when you eat, and the pump can deliver extra doses of insulin to handle blood sugar spikes from food. You can see how small insulin pumps are, about the size of a deck of cards. Insulin is delivered to the body through this narrow, flexible plastic tube or through a needle that is inserted just under the skin. In general, pumps are either worn on your belt or kept in your pocket.

Insulin pumps are particularly popular with people who have type 1 diabetes. They can also be a great choice for people with active lifestyles or those who want an alternative to injecting multiple times a day. Many people relate injections only to insulin, but there are also noninsulin diabetes medicines that are injectable as well. GLP1 receptor agonist. This is a class of injectable, noninsulin medicines used to treat type 2 diabetes. A GLP1 receptor agonist is a medicine that works like the GLP1 hormone. GLP1 stands for glucagonlike peptide1. This hormone is produced in the gut in response to the food you eat.

GLP1 works a few different ways. It slows the movement of food through the stomach, helps the pancreas make more insulin at mealtime, and signals the liver to release less sugar.three things that can help lower blood sugar. If the GLP1 hormone stops working normally, a GLP1 receptor agonist may be what your health care provider prescribes to do the job. In addition to GLP1 agonists, there are also amylin agonists, which can be used to treat type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Amylin agonists do everything GLP1 receptor agonists do except for helping the pancreas make more insulin.

Not everyone with type 2 diabetes will be prescribed diabetes pills or noninsulin injectable medicine. Some people with type 2 diabetes are prescribed insulin. With type 2 diabetes, your pancreas produces insulin, but not enough to keep blood sugar levels in a normal range. Or the body doesn’t respond properly to insulin. Or both. You may have heard from your health care provider that diabetes changes over time. But how does it change exactly It’s complex and not completely understood, but what we do know is the beta cells in your pancreas stop working and your body produces less and less insulin on its own. Or you become more resistant to insulin over time.

Which is why, at some point, your health care provider may prescribe insulin medicine to replace the insulin your body is missing. People sometimes feel they did something wrong if they’re told they have to add insulin to their diabetes treatment. You shouldn’t feel this way. It’s not your fault. It’s just the way diabetes works. Even if you’ve done everything you can to manage your blood sugar, your health care provider may still want to add insulin to your treatment. The key to managing your diabetes is to control your blood sugar levels, and insulin can help you do just that.

Remember, there are risks that come with any medicine, so follow your health care provider’s directions carefully. Different types of insulin work in different ways. There’s human insulin and analog insulin. Your health care provider will know the right type of insulin you may need. So, let’s break down how insulin works Human insulin. You would expect from the name that human insulin comes fromwell, humans. But actually, it’s made in a lab. It’s called human’ insulin because the hormone made in the lab is, in fact, identical to the insulin your body makes.

There are 3 types of human insulin Regular human insulin is shortacting. You usually take it before a meal to cover rises in blood sugar that happen when you eat. Intermediateacting human insulin is only taken once or twice a day and works longer to control blood sugar than regular human insulin. Human premix insulin is regular and intermediateacting insulin, already combined in 1 dose. Premix insulins come in fixed combinations of regular and intermediateacting insulin. Aside from human insulin, there are insulin analogs. Insulin analogs are human insulins with small changes made to the hormone so that they are absorbed faster or last longer in the body. Let’s look at the different types of insulin analogs.

Longacting insulin works to control blood sugar between meals and overnight, while you sleep. Longacting insulin is usually taken either once or twice a day, at the same time every day. Rapid or fastacting insulin is sometimes called mealtime insulin because it’s takenyou guessed itwhen you eat. This insulin works quickly to control the rise in blood sugar caused by food. Like human premix insulin, analogs come premixed as well. Premix analogs have 2 ways of working, fastacting to work when you eatintermediateacting to work between meals. And this is available as a single medicine.

The medicines and delivery devices I talked about are the ones we currently use to treat diabetes. But new advancements are always in the works. It’s pretty exciting when you think about it, but we may see new types of medicines or devices in the future. Whichever diabetes medicine your health care provider prescribes for you, it’s important to take it as you’ve been instructed. Now let’s separate diabetes myth from fact with some help from WebMD. MYTH Once you have type 2 diabetes, the only thing you can do is take medication for it.

FACT There’s a lot more you can do! Exercise, diet, and losing extra weight can help you manage your diabetes, no matter how long you’ve had it. So let’s break it all down There are several different classes of diabetes pills your health care provider can prescribe to help manage type 2 diabetes. Medicines that aren’t taken in pill form are injected under the skin. These days, we have a few different options for taking injectable medicine. Different types of insulin work in different ways to imitate how the body normally releases insulin.

Pretty neat, huh You can learn more by talking to your health care provider. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about your treatment and the options you have. Knowledge is power and as we have seen in this tutorial, our bodies and the medicines we’ve developed are intricate and impressive. But trust me, the more you learn, the more impressed you’ll be. So that’ll do it for this episode of The Diabetes Download We’ll continue breaking down diabetes with other helpful tutorials. Still have questions Find answers at Cornerstones4Care. It’s a great resource for learning more about diabetes.